FOOTBALL – BAHRAIN’S junior men’s football national team will be playing a series of friendly games against international competition over the next few weeks, as the kingdom gets ready to host matches in Group D of the AFC U20 Asian Cup 2027 qualifiers.
The Bahrainis are in their qualification pool alongside Tajikistan, Jordan, and Afghanistan. The matches will be played at Khalifa Sports City Stadium in Isa Town from August 31 to September 6 as one of eight qualifying groups being held across the continent.
The kingdom’s squad will be appearing in five tune-up games as part of their final preparations for the event – two apiece against Syria and Bangladesh at home and then one against Qatar in Doha.
The first will be tonight against the Syrians, who they then take on again on Sunday. Both games are scheduled for 7.15pm kick-offs and they will be played at the Bahrain Football Association’s Fifa Stadium at its premises in Isa Sports City in Riffa.
The nationals will then play their Bangladeshi counterparts on August 16 and 19, both at Khalifa Sports City Stadium with 8.30pm start times. Bahrain then travel to the Qatari capital where they will face their Gulf rivals and hosts in their fifth and last friendly on August 24, kicking off at 7.15pm, Bahrain time.
Syria, Bangladesh, and Qatar are all also set to be amongst the 31 participating teams in qualifying for the AFC U20 Asian Cup 2027.
Both the Syrians and Bangladeshis are in Group B, to be hosted by Uzbekistan and also to include India. Qatar, on the other hand, are in Group E, which they will host and play against Saudi Arabia, Oman, and Hong Kong.
Amongst the other pools in qualifying, three-team Group A is composed of hosts Kyrgyzstan, South Korea, and Lebanon; Group C features hosts Vietnam, Iran, North Korea, and Palestine; Group F is composed of hosts Thailand, Iraq, the UAE, and Turkmenistan; Group G includes hosts Cambodia, Japan, Yemen, and Kuwait; and Group H features hosts Laos, Australia, Indonesia, and Malaysia.
Following a single round-robin in qualification, the eight group winners and the seven best second-placed teams will advance to the 43rd edition of the AFC U20 Asian Cup, to be held in China in March of next year.
Bahrain will be looking to qualify for the AFC U20 Asian Cup for the 10th time. They first competed in 1973 and last in 2016, but have missed the previous three editions.
The nationals’ best finish in the competition was as runners-up in 1986, while Bahrain were also third in 1977.
The kingdom’s junior nationals are coached by former senior men’s national team and Muharraq Club star Ali Aamer. They recently held an overseas training camp in Muscat, where they played a couple of friendlies against the Omanis.
Twenty-six players participated in their foreign training foray and are expected to also feature in their upcoming friendlies. They include Khaled Al Khalaf, Yahya Adel, Khaled Ahmed, Bader Hussain, Faisal Rashed, Mubarak Fawaz, Ahmed Al Marisi, Mohammed Salah, Vasilije Ciric, Aadam Fareed, Jassim Qassim, Sayed Ahmed Alwadaie, Khaled Alkhaldi, Abdulrahman Basem, Ali Mehran, Karrar Huwaida, Ahmed Nasser, Mohammed Al Jazzaf, Ali Hussain, Abdulla Osama, Komail Alsitrawi, Hussain Zuhair, and goalkeepers Issa Faisal, Hussain Ebrahim, Hassan Al Bastaki, and Abdulla Ahmed.
patrick@gdnmedia.bh
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